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I like to connect Tarot with Jung, and the Emperor is a perfect opportunity to do so. The old wise man, the monarch on his high throne, is a Jungian archetypal father figure. He is lofty, powerful, and full of authority. He represents the paternal and masculine aspects of things. Structure, tradition, and unquestioned authority underlie this arcanum. The Emperor is consciousness, a Freudian super-ego, moral rules, the ability to make tough decisions, and also the role of provider and creator. There is a virile, generative aspect to the Emperor. One considers a man who has many, many children of...

If you’re at all familiar with Jungian psychology, you know of the Shadow. The Shadow represents the unconscious, the part of the person that is not consciously acknowledged. Normally, the shadow side holds our primitive drives and negative features of the personality, things that are not consciously acknowledged because they are negative. However, our Shadow can also conceal positive things; in people with low self esteem, the Shadow often blots out positive personal qualities. The Shadow is everything about ourselves that we are blind to, everything about us that we ourselves cannot see. The Devil is an important arcanum because...

Here's some of the latest in the meme wars. We've been hearing about one of the memes featured so prominently in our hilarious T-shirt line – the one where the anodyne gentlemen with his arm around his presumptive girlfriend turns his head back over his shoulder to gawk at some other lady as she passes…”guy looks at girl” - …..also known as “Distracted Boyfriend”… This funny pic has been fodder for all sorts of quirky and uncanny captioning to suggest everything from spousal infidelity to the machinations of the Federal Reserve Bank and the socioeconomic interactions of world superpowers. Overkill?...

Two choices is a Tarot spread. It’s not as common as the usual past-present-future spread, because it’s much more complex, but it is also more in-depth. The two choices spread is used when you have a specific question: I can do A, or I can do B. Which one should I choose, and what are the characteristics of each choice? What are some factors that I should consider? Is one choice unequivocally good or bad? While two choices does not give you a straight yes or no answer, it can help to clarify how you feel about the two choices...

If you’ve ever played a video game or roleplaying tabletop game such as Dungeons and Dragons, you may be familiar with the idea of leveling. Characters have levels, and when they get enough experience, they level up. The Judgment arcanum is about your level. Judgment, at its core, is the real-life equivalent of leveling up. The card art depicts men, women, and children awakening from coffins to stand up and greet the Archangel Gabriel, who is blowing his trumpet because it is Judgment Day. However, the eschatological side of this is one of transformation, not a final end. Thus, the...